Growth through Asymmetric Business Models

The other day I sat down with Andreas Constantinou, founder of analytics company VisionMobile and adjunct professor at Lund University. He researches business models, particularly around developer ecosystems.

Andreas showed me this model about asymmetric business models (ABM), that is: a business model that crosses industries, by forcing profits to migrate from one industry into another:

We see these assymetric growth dynamics play out just about everywhere in the world of the big (formerly) “pure” web companies: Apple, Google, Amazon. Where a platform play isn’t the whole story, but rather the goal is to create whole ecosystems.

If you think about business strategy for your company, I recommend testing this model.

If you work in automotive, to help you figure out who’s friend or foe;

if you work in media, to figure out where your organization truly delivers value;

if you work in city management, to figure out how to build complimentary services and partnerships to grow your “core business” of delivering services to citizens;